All I Want For Christmas
by TStabler
Summary: Annual holiday oneshots. What happens when our favorite detectives only ask for one thing this Christmas? And what happens when they get it? EO
1. Hot and Cold

**Disclaimer: Characters belong, sadly, to Dick Wolf. The fictional setting and happenings they find themselves in is the working of TStabler.**

**A/N: When you're in love, nothing will keep or scare you away. **

It wasn't the fact that she texted him at three in the morning that drove him into a frenzy, it was what the text said, the words she'd chosen.

"I'm not gonna make it tonight. I have a fever and can't stop coughing. I don't want to get you sick."

He'd slapped his phone shut as soon as he read it, practically leapt from his bed, and threw on the first clean pair of pants he could find. He grabbed his keys and his coat and he was gone, determined to prove to her how little he cared about catching anything from her.

He sped through lights and down vacant alleys, taking every shortcut he knew until he pulled up in front of her apartment.

It hit him, then. He looked at the clock on his dashboard and for a moment felt silly for being there half dressed in the middle of winter at three forty-eight in the goddamned morning. He took a breath, then looked up at her front door. He nodded to himself and turned off his car, then dashed from his parking spot to the door, using his copy of her card key to get through.

He grinned at the doorman as he ran toward the stairs, knowing the elevator was slow and probably broken. He played scenarios in his head as he climbed, possible reactions as she opened the door, or his favorite: he used his key and found her fragile body on the couch. He carried her to bed and snuggled her close surprising her only when she woke.

Shaking the thoughts away, he pushed through to the landing of her floor, and he felt his knees buckle with nerves as he walked to her door. He cleared his throat as he wrapped two fingers around the silver key, then stared blankly ahead as he jammed the key into the keyhole and twisted, his heart stopping when it clicked. He held still, holding his breath, and gave the door a light nudge, allowing it to slide slowly open.

He looked around, smiling at the tree in the corner she had protested putting up. Then he chuckled, remembering how she'd finally agreed to leave it up then went crazy buying ornaments and made him stay up till midnight decorating it. His eyes dropped to the presents beneath it, rolling his eyes at the way she wasted an entire roll of wrapping paper and two rolls of tape in an attempt to wrap them all by herself, and how he'd run to help her wrap them before she threw them all out of the window.

It was a Christmas of firsts for them, and he wasn't going to let a silly little sickness stand in the way.

"Liv?" he whispered then, focusing on the roll of blankets on the couch. He let the door close as softly as he could, then tiptoed over to her. "Liv?" he whispered again. He reached out a hand and pressed it gently to her forehead, earning a low groan from her in response.

"Go home," she garbled, her heavy-lidded eyes focusing on him.

He smiled and shook his head, taking off his coat, and he said, "I planned to spend Christmas with you, and so I am."

"El, I don't want you..."

"Shh," he interrupted, and he made his way to her cabinet, finding in its doors large mug and some loose tea. He filled the mug with tap water and plopped it in the microwave, hitting a few buttons and waiting. "I'm staying," he told her as he filled a round bobber with tea. "I'm perfectly content taking care of you, if I haven't made that clear over the last decade, or so."

Olivia rolled her eyes and coughed as she tried to sit up. "Your family..."

"Is gone," he interrupted, grabbing the hot mug from the microwave and dropping the bobber into it. "You know Kathy and Larry took Eli to Florida."

"Yes, but the kids..."

"Liv, Maureen is spending Christmas with Luke and his family, Kathleen isn't coming home from school for the holidays, Dickie and Lizzie went on a ski trip with their friends, so it was just us anyway. Us, Liv."

Olivia blinked once, her eyes fixed on his body as he walked toward her with the mug of tea in his hands. She pulled her feet in to allow him to sit, and she chuckled as he grabbed her ankles and flattened her feet, perching them in his lap.

He handed her the mug, and he seethed, "Careful, it's hot."

She nodded as she took a sip, then sighed. "You can't afford to get sick."

He grinned at her. "I can't afford to be without you, either." He brushed a bit of hair back behind her ear and his smile softened. "I'd rather be here with you and risk a cold than be alone tonight wishing I wasn't."

She smiled back. "Tell me why." She tilted her head and took another sip of tea, then gasped slightly as she felt him grab her hand. She froze as he leaned closer and closer, but she didn't stop him.

Hovering above her, he smiled softly, and the hand that wasn't clutching hers stroked gently down her face. He bent his head and kissed her, taking her lower lip between both of his, suckling lightly. He looped his left hand around her neck as his right tightened around her fingers. He swiped his tongue just slightly over hers, earning a soft gasp, and then pulled back, kissing her cheeks, her forehead, and her nose. "Because," he said softly, "I love you."

Olivia could feel her fever breaking, yet she didn't feel any less hot, and she knew why. After a harsh cough and another sip of tea, she looked at him. "I love you, too, El."

He smirked as he settled back into the couch and rested both of his hands on her feet. "Sleep," he told her. He gave her ankles a squeeze, then watched her take a final sip of tea and put the mug on her coffee table. He smiled at her as she nestled in the crook of the couch and when she reached for his hand, he gladly gave it to her.

He sighed once and let his head fall back, knowing this was truly going to be his perfect Christmas.

**A/N: Next: Elliot finds a crumpled letter to Santa, and thinks he knows who wrote it. Will he make some Christmas magic happen? **


	2. Dear Santa

**Disclaimer: Characters belong, sadly, to Dick Wolf. The fictional setting and happenings they find themselves in is the working of TStabler.**

**A/N: We all have that one thing on our Christmas lists for which we're afraid to ask.**

**_His hand winds around the back of her neck, his lips press to hers fiercely, she moans against them. Or is it a whimper? Or both? She can't think, can't breathe, as his thick hardness pushes into her, making her feel full. Whole. _**

**"Earth to Benson!" **

**The harsh, growling voice snaps her out of her daydream, and she miraculously keeps herself from blushing as she turns, blinking her eyes fast. "Sorry."**

**"Where'd you go?" Amaro asks, smirking and folding his arms. **

**Olivia sighs. "Heaven," she whispers, lifting her now-cold coffee to her lips. "What were you saying?"**

**"I was saying," Nick says, aggravated, "That if you had plans tonight you could go. It's been slow around here for days, and I'm pretty sure the three of us could handle it."**

**"Plans?" she scrunches her nose. "No, I don't..."**

**Rollins cuts in, her thin, blonde hair swaying when she leans over. "I took the message for you. You don't have to tell me who he is, just give me the juicy details in the morning." She slaps a yellow sticky-note on the desk in front of Olivia and grins.**

**Olivia, looking down at it, tilts her head as she reads. "Santa's coming early. Eight o'clock. Don't be late. You know where." She looks up at the clock, seeing the little hand crawling toward the twelve. "Shit." She looks at Amaro, silently asking if he's sure. **

**When he nods, she's up and running, grabbing her keys and her coat and bolting toward the elevator. Her head swims with wonder and worry. What does he mean? Santa's coming early? She didn't tell a soul what she wanted for Christmas this year, especially not him. She wrote it down, but threw it away, feeling juvenile having actually written to Santa. Her hands shake as she hails a cab, but once she sits on the sticky leather, she calms. **

**The ride across town is silent, allowing her to breathe and focus. "Maybe it's nothing," she muses to herself. "Maybe he's just being cute. Or trying to be funny." When the cab stops, she doesn't even give the driver time to tell her how much to pay, she simply slaps two twenty dollar bills in his hand and leaps out of the yellow car. She clears her throat, then heaves a sigh, looking around the square for him.**

**She briefly wonders if she's in the wrong place, but this is the spot at which they'd always met, sometime before midnight, on Christmas eve. It's the point at which they'd spill their wishes and resolutions for the new year, of course she'd always held one wish back, kept one resolution to herself. **

**"Thought you'd never get here," a low voice all but moans from behind her.**

**Her eyes close and her lips curl into a smile, and when she feels his hands slide around her waist like a tight belt, she sinks back into him. "Me either." It means more than she lets on.**

**He chuckles as he kisses her cheek and sways with her to the obnoxious holiday music blasting through the hung speakers. "It's prettier this year," he says with a sigh as he stares at the enormous and lavishly decorated tree a few feet away, "But maybe it's because I'm happier."**

**She maneuvers herself in his arms, turning around to face him without letting go. "Hold on a second," she says, realization taking over. "Did you just...what are you..."**

**"Dear Santa," he cuts her off. "I feel ridiculous writing this, but I would rather tell an imaginary fat man in a suit what I truly want for Christmas than anyone else. It sounds crazy, but it's the first year I know I'd go mad if I didn't at least write it down and send it out into the universe."**

**"El, what the hell are you..."**

**He presses a finger to her lips as he smiles and continues, reciting her silly letter to Santa from memory. "I want him. I want him to know. I shouldn't need to ask, I shouldn't need to tell him, he should just know how much I love him, and this year..."**

**"Please," she mews against his finger, her eyes closing as she starts to tremble. "Stop. I know what it says."**

**He leans closer to her, his breath hot in her ear as he whispers, "This year, I want more, I want everything, with him." He nips at her earlobe and he asks, "You meant me, didn't you?"**

**She chokes back a cry as she nods. "Is this what you dragged me out here for?" she snaps, suddenly turning her embarrassment to anger. "To tear me down in front of the Rockefeller...where we...where it all..."**

**"Whoa, whoa, stop, Liv," his eyes are wide and pleading as he struggles to keep his grip on her, and when she stops fighting him off, he looks into her eyes. "I brought you here...to give you what you want, baby." He tries to smile. "I thought...I mean, I just assumed we already had it, but that letter told me...you need to hear it."**

**She swallows the lump in her throat. "What are you talking about?"**

**He scrapes his teeth along his bottom lip and runs his fingers up and down her arms absent-mindedly. "Liv, I...the nights we spent together, the dinners, takeout on your couch that ended up on your bed...mornings just holding you until a phone rang, I thought...it was real to me, Liv. Every moment." He slips a hand up her arm completely, then down her back, pulling her closer. "It never once occurred to me that you thought it was anything less, until I emptied the garbage bin in the bedroom and that letter dropped out."**

**Tears form in her eyes and she tries like hell to keep them from falling. "El, I can't...I can't get you out of my head. Not that I want to, but...I close my eyes and I see you...us...and I..."**

**"I'm scared, too, Liv," he admits to her. "After everything we've been through, everything that's happened, you had to know that if we ever got to this...where we are now...it would be real. It would be forever. You're the one person in my life I can't bear to lose, I would never hurt you, or use you, or..."**

**"I know that," she interrupts. "God, El, I know that." She sniffles and laughs at herself. "I guess that letter...was more admitting to myself that I..." she pauses. She looks around, stopping her eyes on the tree, letting the twinkling lights shine in her teary eyes for a moment. When she looks back at him, his cheeks are rosy and his lips are chapping, and it's the first time she notices how cold it is outside. "I love you, El," she tells him. "I spent so damn long trying to convince myself I didn't, and that letter...it wasn't asking Santa for anything, it was finally letting myself really...fall..."**

**She can't finish her sentence, he shuts her up with a kiss. Hard and deep, his tongue swirls with hers. His hands grip and grapple with hers and without any conscious effort, they move into a darkened corner. She moans when his left hand squeezes her ass, and in return she slides her right hand between them, between his legs, taking hold of his growing length. **

**"Liv," he murmurs as he kisses her. "Liv, baby, not..."**

**"Here," she says with a wicked gleam in her eye. She nips at his lips, then moves her mouth, biting her way across his jaw to his neck. "Right here, El. Every year we promise each other, in this spot..." she trails off, her teeth scraping his skin as her fingers work his cock out of his jeans. She strokes, long and slow, as she bites his neck again.**

**"Fuck," he growls, giving up, giving in, and he hopes it's dark enough, he prays people are too busy and distracted to notice them. He grunts as he urges her black pants down just enough to give her the mobility she needs to sink around him. His hands grip her back and he shakes her away from his neck. "Look at me," he commands, and when their eyes meet the frenzy stops and there is silence. **

**She remains fixed on his darkening eyes as they move, so slowly, together. She feels him tighten his hold on her, the slight bucking of his hips making her gasp and roll her eyes backward. "El," she whispers. "Elliot."**

**He softly chuckles, then moans, and he is brought back to their first time like this, only a few months ago, when his divorce was finalized and he was settled into a new job and a new house, and he needed to take the chance he'd waited years for, to make his life complete. "You know," he whispers to her, kissing her nose lightly as he slowly and easily thrusts into her. "I want everything with you."**

**She smiles as her body tightens, and she crashes her mouth into his and lets go. With the tremendous release, she lets go of fear, of doubt, and of inhibition. Her nails claw into his shoulders and she moans his name into his kiss.**

**He responds eagerly, thrusting slightly harder, slightly faster, until it's her name on his lips, flying away with a curse and solidifying the promise he's making to her, right here, right now, under the tree. **

**When all is calm, he brushes her hair back and cups her cheeks. "I love you, Liv," he says to her. "I always have. I shouldn't have had to..."**

**"I know," she nods, resting her forehead against his as she feels him readjusting her pants and shirt. "I know, I'm sorry, I should have..."**

**"Hey," he laughs, kissing her. "All I really need to hear right now is..."**

**She kisses him. "I love you, too, El," she whispers, nuzzling his nose with hers. And together they look back at the tree, and they smile. "Best Christmas ever," she says to him.**

**"Baby," he says with a soft kiss, "You ain't seen nothin' yet."**

**A/N: Next: CHRISTMAS DAY! We find out what, exactly, he means by that**


	3. Christmas Begins at Home

**DISCLAIMER: The characters belong to Dick Wolf, but the story and precarious situations in which they are involved are the property of TStabler**

**A/N: The morning after everything changes, things usually change again.**

She wakes to the sound of babbling children and the smell of maple and bacon. One eye opens and for a moment she's terrified. She forgets where she is, and she feels her heart stop, then she remembers.

She remembers the tree, his kiss, his touch. How eager he was to get her home, to get her in bed, to get her where he wanted her, needed her. She remembers the night, loving him almost non-stop, taking short breaks only to get a glass of water and give her hyper-sensitive body a rest.

She blinks rapidly as she sits up, the cream colored sheet the only thing covering her naked form, and she curses silently. His kids are here. They will see her, and they will know.

As quietly as she can, she peels herself away from the still-sticky mattress, keeping the sheet clutched to her chest, and she rifles through the top drawer of his dresser, hoping that one of their late night romps saw at least one article of her clothing end up with his.

Success! Miracles do exist, she thinks, as she pulls the faded pink NYPD sweatshirt over her head. She bites her lip as she looks around, fumbling to find something to wear on the bottom that won't scream, "I slept with your father last night." Sighing, she realizes a pair of his sweatpants is the best she can do, and she pulls them on, hoping they're going to stay put.

She takes a glance in his dresser mirror, combing her fingers through her hair, and she plasters on as calm a smile as she can manage. She turns, takes a deep breath, and walks out of his bedroom, into the danger zone.

"Morning, sunshine," he says, winking at her. He kisses her cheek as soon as she's close enough to him, and he says, "You look incredible."

She squints. "You're insane." She leans closer to him and whispers, "Your kids are..."

"Prepared for this," he assures her. "They're setting the table. Christmas breakfast is almost ready." He flips the frying pan, turning a perfectly round, golden pancake on its head. "Then it's time for presents. And maybe a kiss or two under the mistletoe before dinner."

"Right," she says, chuckling. "I'll just see you tomorrow then, or call me when..."

"Excuse me?" he asks, sounding stunned. "You're staying. You're a part of all this now, Liv." He shakes his head, flummoxed. "You wanted everything with me, so welcome to everything."

She stills, choking on every word forming on her lips. "El, you...I didn't think this would happen overnight, I..."

"You are going to sit down, and you are going to eat a stack of these from-scratch pancakes, and then you're going to open more presents than I think you're prepared for," he laughs and kisses her lips.

She can't help the small laugh that escapes, and she gives in, turning around to face the kids and face the music. "Hey, gang," she says, half-terrified.

"Morning, Liv," Dickie chirps. "Merry Christmas, Liv!" Lizzie yells. Maureen waves witha smile, her mouth full of fresh whipped cream, and Kathleen shouts, "Your pants are on inside out!"

Olivia looks down, then up, and when she sees Kathleen laughing, she laughs, too. "Guess so," she shrugs.

Kathleen shakes her head and rolls her eyes, then walks over to her overnight bag in the corner. "Here," she says, unzipping the bag. She pulls a pair of plaid, flannel pajama bottoms out of it and kicks it back into the corner. "These are a little too big for me, but I promise they're not nearly as big as dad's. You'll be more comfortable. At least, until dinner."

"Thanks, Katie," Olivia nods at the girl, taking the pants from her.

Kathleen doesn't let go, though. "We were all ready for this," she whispers to Olivia. "But I guess you weren't. Just...don't hurt him, okay?"

Olivia smiles and places a small kiss on Kathleen's forehead. "Honey, never, I promise.

"All right!" Elliot yells, bringing a large platter of pancakes to the table. "Dig in."

The kids scramble to find seats around the table, purposely leaving the two at the end unoccupied. Elliot, taking the cue from his less-than-subtle offspring, pulls out one chair for Olivia, and when she sits, he kisses her. "Merry Christmas, Liv."

She watches him sit, and when he's settled, she reaches for his hand. "Why now?" she asks quietly, stroking the side of his palm with her thumb. "I know you found that letter, but, El, why now? Today?"

"I thought I'd make sure you had a reason to believe in Santa," he jokes with a wink and a smile. "And...I think we both deserved a happy holiday. I wanted this as much as you, Liv. No more secrets, no more wondering what exactly we are. Everything."

"Is that what you're gonna tell Grandma, tonight?" Dickie asks, chewing a large glob of syrupy pancake.

Elliot scoffs. "Son, don't talk with your mouthful," he scolds. "And no. Your grandmother is fully convinced Liv and I have been together for years. It's your mother that scares me."

"Kathy's gonna be here?" Olivia chokes on her bacon and downs half a glass of milk before she can ask him, "What the hell?"

Elliot laughs. "Honey, she's coming, it's Christmas, and it's the one holiday we don't feel right about splitting the kids for, ya know? She knows, I think she's always known, but I don't want any old wounds opening up and I know she has the ability to..."

"She won't," Maureen interrupts. "She's bringing someone."

Elliot visibly relaxes and his grip on Olivia's hand tightens. "See?" he says, looking at her. "It's gonna be a very merry Christmas. I told you, baby, we're gonna be amazing together."

Lizzie swallows her mouthful of breakfast and asks, "So that means you told Liv you're going back to Manhattan, huh?"

"What?" Olivia gasps.

"Uh-oh," Lizzie says, turning white. "Not?"

Olivia looks at Elliot. "What does that mean? You're...your coming...you're gonna..."

"Tucker called," Elliot says, poking at his sausage with his fork. "There was an opportunity and I took it, so yeah, after the new year, I'll be back at the One-Six." He tries to gauge her reaction, wondering if it's anger or excitement in her eyes. "Say something."

She moves fast, kissing him hard and nipping his lip. "Merry Christmas," she whispers. "I love you."

He rests his forehead against hers, smiling, and he whispers, "I love you, too," right back. And he thinks, as he kisses her again, how truly amazing Christmas has been so far, and how much more memorable it will be when she opens her presents.

With another kiss, it hits him.

New Year's Eve is gonna be incredible.

**A/N: yes that is a hint at the first NYE One-Shot that will premiere after Christmas :) Next up: Stranded on Christmas? Who? And who comes to the rescue?**


End file.
